(.net) technology and society

April 05, 2007

7 Tips for Successful Social Network Campaigns

It's a well-established Web 2.0 trend that people are gathering themselves into
online social networks. Mobilizing these individuals and communities into action, however, is still an emergent practice. At N-TEN's 2007 Nonprofit Technology Conference, folks gathered to share best practices on how to not only effectively spread a message using social networks, but also drive people to take action. These seven tips are worth noting:

Meet people where they are. Why do
rock bands put more effort into creating a MySpace persona and presence
than they do into building their own web site?
It's because MySpace is where the people are, and it's easier to work
with an established community than to create a new one from scratch.

Leverage network partners. Care2 built its network of 7 million members by
giving both organizations and individuals many ways to
engage. Because of this
cross-organization network, the Humane Society was able to reach out to
not only its own members, but also to members of other organizations
that would be interested in mobilizing around Katrina relief.

Be everywhere you can be, but prioritize.
Different social networks have different demographics, so be very
deliberate in choosing which networks to reach out to. In addition, the best
campaigns will integrate both online and offline strategies towards achieving a unified goal.

Keep on top of your member acquisition costs. Figure out the
most cost-effective way to aggregate your
community. e.g., is
it cheaper to buy a list and convert .01% of them into
activists for your campaign, or to hire an intern to work on creating
an active social network persona? Care2 found that their acquisition
cost per friend on MySpace is about $12/friend. And if 50% of
those people opted in to a mailing list, then the cost per opt-in
activist lead is
$24. Given that highly targeted lists can cost $7 - 15 per raw lead, that final $24 can make sense.

Be prepared for the big moment. Typically it takes time for a message to
percolate when it doesn't have a supporting marketing budget. But whatever your effort is,
there will come a moment that puts you in the news. Will you be able
to retain all of the people that show up at your door? For
nonprofits, a example scenario is the
Red Cross web site after Hurricane Katrina hit. For a consumer Internet
vendor, it could be a great mention in digg.

Let the community take over your message. The best thing that
you can do is to lose control of your message, and to let other people
take it over as their own. Scott Goodstein of Catalyst Campaigns
shared the story of how 1-800-SUICIDE made up for a large fundraising
deficit due to cancelled government grant. The organization took a
concise message and its small, 2500-person e-mail list to MySpace.
Musicians touched by the issue joined the group --- as did their own
enormous mailing lists. MySpace ended up being a great vehicle, and
other major web sites were
able to jump in and build in a natural, viral way.

Keep calls to action simple. If
you're able to tap into a community using a simple call to action, that
community can end up doing a
lot of work for your campaign. Calls to action also need to make sense
within the context of the forum in which a message is being heard. For
example, don't ask a user to make a phone call while watching your
YouTube video on MySpace - ask her to tell a friend about it.

In my experience, the toughest item on this list is #6 - it's tough
for traditional marketing and outreach staff to let go of control over
their messages. Faith in the community, however, is rewarded more often
than not, and even large consumer products vendors are taking notice.

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7 Tips for Successful Social Network Campaigns

It's a well-established Web 2.0 trend that people are gathering themselves into
online social networks. Mobilizing these individuals and communities into action, however, is still an emergent practice. At N-TEN's 2007 Nonprofit Technology Conference, folks gathered to share best practices on how to not only effectively spread a message using social networks, but also drive people to take action. These seven tips are worth noting: